He leaned down, licking up along my throat, followed by open-mouthed kisses while his hand scorched a trail up my side. He skimmed over my ribs before cupping my breast, and his thumb easily found my tightened nipple—immediately lighting a fire low in my belly as I arched into his touch.
I kept grinding against him, feeling his excitement, which only further fueled my own.
“Cade, please,” I breathed, beyond desperate for him to tear the nightgown down its seam, rip my panties off, and do anything he wanted to me.
But instead of hurrying, Cade took his time sliding my nightgown up, like he had to appreciate every inch of skin he uncovered. Cool air met my bared skin, popping goose bumps up along the searing path of his hands.
I moved to help him pull the silky fabric up, but Cade gently nudged my hands away and nipped my lower lip in warning. “Patience, Darling. You’ve been teasing me for a lot longer.”
A shiver danced down my spine, but I scoffed at the injustice. “What do you mean? I haven’t teased you at all!”
He nipped at my neck, making me grab his shoulders before he soothed the sting with his tongue.
“What would you call your little moans during the massage?” he murmured. “Or that happy little sigh every time you eat chocolate? Cuddling up against me during the night, all soft and sweet? Should I go on?”
“That’s not fair,” I tried to grumble, but my voice came out too breathy to sell it. “You can’t use the chocolate against me.”
“Against you? No, it wasn’t a complaint. Far from it,” he murmured before shutting me up with another kiss.
His hand finally moved south, Cade sliding his fingers into the waist of my panties and making me lose the ability to speak. My hips rotated faster in anticipation, needing more?—
Deafening alarm bells blared through the room’s speakers, startling me into biting Cade’s tongue before we both jerked back.
“What—?” I choked out as Cade dropped the chemise to fall back in place. He held me tight, pulling us both up and off the bed. It took longer than it should’ve for my brain to catch on to reality, but the sirens scrambled everything.
“What’s the alarm mean?”I called over the endless screeching, clinging to his shoulders. My brain had frozen somewhere between fight and flight. “A fire?”
A grim edge crept into Cade’s voice. “Man overboard.”
cat-astrophe
. . .
Cade
“Wait here,” I ordered, setting Ellie on her feet and hoping she’d listen for once in her life while I made for the door.
She followed hot on my heels instead. “‘Wait here’? No way! I’m coming with you.”
We burst into the corridor, where emergency lights flashed along the ceiling, washing everything in a crimson glow.
Ellie sucked in a breath.
“Whiskey’s gone!” she cried, head whipping frantically down both directions of the corridor. “Either the alarm frightened him, or he went looking for Mac. I need to find him.”
“Come on.” I took her wrist and pulled her toward the nearest staircase, remembering all the emergency procedures Grandfather had drilled into me. “We need to get to the main deck first.”
Ellie stuck to my side like glue, and we reached the deck just as the alarm cut off, leaving my ears ringing.
The yacht had plenty of lighting—rivaling the stars—but we were surrounded by the inky black surface of water. Darkness stretched for miles on all sides.
Crew swarmed the deck in a flurry of motion, shouting orders. Other guests had already gathered near the port-siderailing. I spotted Madison and Piper first, both clinging to each other next to a frazzled Lovejoy. A quick head count showed no sign of Harrison, Vlad, Candace, Fletcher, or my mother.
The last one didn’t sit well with me with the man overboard alarm. My mother might actually be dramatic enough to jump off her balcony for attention. She’d done similar theatrics before.
A cry of relief left Ellie. “There’s Whiskey!”
She darted past me and most of the group to reach my grandfather—who held Whiskey in his arms like a newborn baby. He doted on the cat with a warm smile, making me squint.
